Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere, comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller island in the Indian and Pacific oceans.
Neighbouring countries include: Indonesia, East Timor and Papua and New Guinea to the north, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia to the northeast and New Zealand to the southeast.
Modern Australia was founded with the influx of European settlers just over two hundred years ago, but the Aborigines inhabited the continent for tens of thousands of years before that.
They numbered a few hundred thousand before the European influx. But two centuries of discrimination and expropriationfollowed, and at one point the indigenous population fell as low as 60,000.
Australia's politicians at first looked to Europe and the US in foreign policy, but in the past 20 years or so they have made their near neighbours a priority.
AUSTRALIA
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere, comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller island in the Indian and Pacific oceans.
Neighbouring countries include: Indonesia, East Timor and Papua and New Guinea to the north, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia to the northeast and New Zealand to the southeast.
Modern Australia was founded with the influx of European settlers just over two hundred years ago, but the Aborigines inhabited the continent for tens of thousands of years before that.
They numbered a few hundred thousand before the European influx. But two centuries of discrimination and expropriationfollowed, and at one point the indigenous population fell as low as 60,000.
Australia's politicians at first looked to Europe and the US in foreign policy, but in the past 20 years or so they have made their near neighbours a priority.
Next page